If you scour the shelves of a pharmacy or drug store, you'll most likely find numerous brands of over-the-counter treatment for acne more than you can count with your fingers. among other skin infections,There are likely to be ingredients common to said treatments for skin infections, though none are exactly the same. If the problem is something that your typical medication can handle, it is probably best you consult a skin care professional.
In most cases, these readily available measures achieve the simple goal of alleviating your acne problem without causing any discomfort. Of course, given individual reactions to the chemicals in the skin treatments, that may not always be the case. Prescription medication, which is typically more potent, may also cause the same unwanted side-effects as those that come from over-the-counter products.

Various factors influence the effectiveness of an over-the-counter or prescription acne treatment product. You might be inclined to wonder which of the two would be the best acne medication, with minimal possible side effects. Well, the answer to this is that all medications can potentially cause side effects. Every person's skin will react differently to different drugs or medications.
Let's take a look at this whole thing objectively, shall we? Or at least, with as much objectivity a single person can have.

Hopefully, if we do that we can find the best acne medication, or at least something close to it. In theory, there may be no such thing as a “best” medication, as individual skin chemistry can easily get in the way.
First off, over-the-counter medication for your average range of skin infections, let alone acne, is nowhere near as potent as your typical prescription treatment. This may stem from either the differences in the basic chemical composition or how concentrated the key ingredients of the treatments are. A prescription acne treatment may clear up the problem faster, but the potency of the chemicals can cause side effects more readily than the over-the-counter variants. That means that your life can get back to normal a lot faster, seeing as how you've got one less thing to worry about.
However, despite being “less effective” (and that's something that's just this side of being arguable), over-the-counter stuff is significantly cheaper. Unless you've somehow gotten a case of monumentally bad acne, you should go and try an over-the-counter treatment first. They may not be as potent, but they very often can do the job on their own. If they're not helping, you shouldn't hesitate to seek professional help.

Medical insurance may or many not entirely cover your costs, as this sort of thing is something that varies depending on the details of your coverage.
The lower potency of the drugs can also be a boon rather than a bane, for some people. You see, every once in a while, the combination of skin, acne, and other factors is going to produce a person with very sensitive skin. The kind of skin that turns red and swells to the size of a grapefruit at the slightest touch of benzoyl peroxide, or something similar. However, lower chemical potency means that you're also less likely to run into a nasty side effect.
There's also the matter of convenience to be considered here. An over-the-counter product is obviously easier to get your hands on. Go to a drug store, find medication for acne that you like or think would work, and pay for it at the counter. Simple, clean, and there's not a whole lot of time involved. In contrast, if you need to get one that's prescription-required, that involves the time to set up the appointment, the consultation, and all that other good stuff.

There's also the matter of an individual's skin. Your skin is unique and how it might react to something is different from how someone else's skin might react. Your skin may be tougher than most, or it can be easier to scar than most. Medications are set to a specific formula when they're made.
Finally, you may want to keep in mind not to mix and match your treatments. Drug interaction is a leading cause of side effects, aside from poor interaction with the patient's skin. Skin infections like acne can be made worse if you mix two treatments together, such as benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. The warning about drug interaction holds true even when you mix together over-the-counter medication and prescription ones, even if the two have ingredients in common.
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